Offaly selectors rule out return

November 02, 2000

Offaly hurling selectors Ger Coughlan and Pat Cleary have said that they would not be willing to work under a new county team manager.
"I would have liked if Pat Fleury had stayed on, and I wouldn't feel the same about working with someone else," Coughlan said.
Both men stepped down in the aftermath of Pat Fleury's resignation and neither is interested in succeeding their former Offaly team-mate. Both were critical of the practice in Offaly of limiting managers to one year terms.
"You cannot plan or build for the future on that basis," Couglan remarked.
"I strongly feel that a manager should be given a minimum of two years in charge to give himself and his selectors the opportunity to get to know his players and to establish a close bond with them."